HISTORICAL FUND OF THE LIBRARY OFETSAB

Selection of works

 

Italian architectural treatises 

Treatises of Vitruvius (81 BC - 15 BC)

 

VITRUVIUS POLLIÓ, Mark. M.Vtruvvii Pollionis de architectura libri decem ...: omnibus omnium editionibus longe emendatiores, collatis veteribus exemplis: accesservnt Gulielmi Castilionii ciuis Romani annotationes casti gatiores & plus tertia parte locupletiores: adiecta est Epitome in omnes Georgiij Agricolae de libros & p author ... Lvgdvni: apvd Ioan. Tornaesivm, 1552

Access to the digital version

This copy of the Library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

vitruvianVITRUVIUS POLLIÓ, Mark. I Dieci libri dell'architettura di M. Vitruvio / tradutti et commentatti da Monsignor Barbaro ...; with due tavole, the one di tutto quello if it contains per i capi nell'opera, the other by dechiaratione di tutte le cose de importanzaIn Vinegia: By Francesco Marcolini, 1556

Access to the digital version

The Venetian translator and commentator Daniele Barbaro is the third great Italian interpreter of Vitruvius in the XNUMXth century and the first intellectual to be no architect.

The Vitruvius of Barbarian and the Quattro libri dell'architettura de Palladio published in 1570 complement each other so that the respective contributions of the two authors to Vitruvi's comment are inseparable.

This first edition of the work is illustrated with wood engravings based on Vitruvi's drawings.

Seconds David Rosand: "for the preparation of this volume, which could have begun in 1547, Barbaro participated with Palladio, to whom he not only owes the most important illustrations, but also contributed by contributing his experience and knowledge both in archeology as in architecture Barbaro especially praised the work done by Palladio in relation to the ancient Roman theater, as impressive as the illustrations is Barbaro's own commentary, basically Aristotelian, in which a single line and even a single Vitruvius' words become a real discovery. "

In 1567 Francesco di Franceschi and Giovanni Chreigher published in Venice the second revised and enlarged edition in a smaller format. The same publishers also produced a Latin edition in the same year. Later editions appeared in 1584, 1629 and 1641, all in Venice.

The first known Spanish translation is a manuscript published between 1584 and 1600 that is preserved in the National Library of Spain.

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

VITRUVIUS POLLIÓ, Mark. The architecture : books decem ; cum comentariis: Danielis Barbari. Venetiis: Apud Franciscum, Franciscum Senenfem & loan Crugher Germanum, 1567

Access to the digital version

Latin edition published by Francesco di Franceschi and Giovanni Chreiger. In the same year, the same publishers published the second revised and augmented edition of Francesco Marcolini's edition published in 1556.

This edition contains more illustrations (by Giovanni Creiger) than the first edition, although of lower quality. Some of them took advantage of the edition of And fourtro libri del''architettura d'Andrea Palladio de 1570./ M. Vitruvii Pollionis; cum comentariis: Danielis Barbari. Venetiis: Apud Franciscum, Franciscum Senenfem & Ioan Crugher Germanum, 1567

 

 

 

 

 

 

VITRUVIUS POLLIÓ, Mark. Architecture or Art of building well ; mis de latin en français par Jean Martin. Geneva: Jean de Tournes, 1618

Third edition of the first translation of Vitruvius into French made in 1547 by Jean Martin who, thanks to his translations of many texts of the Italian Renaissance, played an important role in its dissemination in France.

From 1546 he took care of the French edition of Serlio's work, in 1546 he published the French translation of Hypnerotomachia by Francesco Colonna adding new engravings made by French artists and finally in 1553, Alberti's Architecture which appeared after his death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VITRUVIUS POLLIÓ, Mark. General architecture of Vitruvius / abbreviated, by Mr. Perrault of the Academy of Sciences in Paris. Last edition enriched with copper figures. Amsterdam: aux dépens des Huguetan, et se vend chez George Gallet sur le Keyser Graft, M.DC.LXXXI [és a dir 1691]

Access to the digital version

In 1673 the translation with notes of The architectura libri decem of Vitruvius by Claude Perrault, one of the great architects of Louis XIV, as well as a physicist, mechanic, doctor and naturalist. He was the brother of the also famous writer Charles Perrault. It was later reissued in 1684. 

Perrault's translation did not please the Royal French Academy of Architecture as it broke with his concept that the beauty of a building is the result of the accuracy of its proportions According to him, there are no absolute rules regarding architectural proportions and the definition of beauty depends on all and a general consensus. This concept, which broke with the previous tradition, scandalized and started a long-lasting debate.

The edition of the library, which is part of the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection, is an abbreviated version later published in Amsterdam.

Perruult's edition of Vitruvius was translated into several countries in different languages, such as Spanish translated by José Castañeda, first published in 1761. which we also have in the library. 

                                     

              

VITRUVIUS POLLIÓ, Mark. Compendium of the ten books of architecture by Vitruvius / written in French by Claudio Perrault ...; traducido al castellano por don Joseph Castañeda ... En Madrid: en la imprenta de D. Gabriel Ramirez ..., 1761

Access to the digital version 

After the edition of Urrea, the Treaty of Vitruvius was not reissued in Spain until the mid-eighteenth century. In 1761 this translation by Joseph Castañeda of the French version by Claude Perrault appeared. Castañeda, professor of the Real Academy of San Fernando, chose the version of the French doctor for the translation following the considerations established by the count of Aranda in his report of 1757 on architectonic studies in which, among others recommendations, went to propose an important policy of translations and reedición of the main representatives of the classic treaty writer like Vitruvi, Serlio, Vignola, Palladio or Scamozzi. 

As the title suggests, the work is a very short version with few illustrations of Vitruvius' treatise. This translation inaugurated the Editorial Policy of the Academy for the Teaching of Architecture.

Font: http://biblioteca.aq.upm.es/biblioteca_digital/vitruvio.html

According to Dora Wiebenson: This compendium of Perrault reorganizes and condenses the Vitruvian text creating a totally modern theory of positive and arbitrary beauty. To this must be added a selection of the most important classical monuments from the plates of the complete edition of Vitruvius made by himself.

This complete edition marks the end of a long tradition of interpreting the texts of the classical author. Translated into five languages ​​and republished eleven times during the following century, this popular work was aimed at the amateur and the man of taste.

Font: The Architecture Treaties: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988

One of the copies in the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817) and the other of the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

                                                                                           Go to the beginning

Treaties of Albert (1404 - 1472)

 

ALBERTI, Leon Battista. The Ten Books of Architecture / di Leon Battista de gli Alberti ...; nouamente da la latina ne la volgar lingua con assai diligenza tradotti [di Pietro Lauro] Venecia: Vincezo Vaugris, 1546.

Access to the digital version

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALBERTI, Leon Battista. Architecture /; translated into Florentine by Cosimo Bartoli ...; with the addition of drawings. Venetia: Francesco di Franceschi, 1565

Access to the digital version of our copy

Second translation of the work Of re aedificatoria from Alberti to Italian. Its peculiarity is that it offered for the first time the text accompanied by illustrations. 

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALBERTI, Leon Battista.  The Ten Books of Architecture / of Leon Baptista Alberto; tradvzidos de latin en romance ... [Madrid]: en casa de Alonso Gomez ..., 1582

Access to the digital version

First printed and ninth Spanish translation of the Alberti treatise published in the house of Alonso Gómez, the king's printer. It includes a dedication to Juan Fernández de Espinosa (treasurer between 1578 and 1582 of Felipe II) probably with the aim of obtaining his sponsorship (common at the time). Philip II himself gave free rein to the edition in Madrid on October 17, 1578, which took four years to be printed.

The work mentions that it has the approval of Juan de Herrera, which is remarkable since Herrera was the main figure in the architecture of the moment, closely linked to Philip II.

Work of vital importance to the Spanish context of century XVI since, according to Fernando Marías a The long sixteenth century. The artistic uses of the Spanish Renaissance): […] by leaving behind decidedly and definitively the Plateresque decorativismo that, in general, acted only on surfaces, on the skin of the architecture, and rarely in its structures; the opinions of Diego de Sagredo's Measures of the Roman (Toledo, 1526) were somehow surpassed. […].

Somehow he postulates the classicism of the reign of Philip II, confirmed by the later translation of the Rule vignolesca (also promoted by Juan de Herrera).

The edition has no engravings and this highlights the conceptual role of the text.

Source: Suárez Quevedo, Diego. On the first editions of Leon Battista Alberti's De re aedificatoria. Faculty of Geography and History, UCM Online query

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

ALBERTI, Leon Battista. The Architecture of Leon Batista Alberti in ten books of painting in three books and of statuary in one book / translated into Italian by Cosimo Bartoli, and into English by James Leoni, architect; illustrated with seventy-five copper-plates engraved by Mr. Picart in one volume. London: printed by Edward Owen, in Hand-Court, Holborn, for Robert Alfray, in the Hay-market, St. James's, M.DCC.LV. [1755]

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                             Go to the beginning

 

Treatises of Serlio (1475 - 1554)

SERLIO, Sebastiano. General rules of architecture by Sabastiano Serlio from Bologna over the five ways of buildings, ie, Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and composite: with the examples of antiquity, which for the most part agree with the doctrine of Vitruvius: with nuoue additioni & castigationi, dal medesimo autore in questa terza editione, come ne la seguente carta è notato. [Venice]: printed by Francesco Marcolini in Venice, at the sign of the truth, MDXLIIII [1544]

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SERLIO, Sebastiano. Il Terzo libro di Sabastiano Serlio bolognese, nel qual si figurano, e descriuono le antiquita di Roma, e le altre che sono in Italia, e fuori de Italia: con noue additioni, come ne la tauola appare. [Venice]: printed by Francesco Marcolini in Venice, in the sign of the truth, MDXLIIII [1544]

Access to the digital version

It is the first popular-language printed compendium that contains wood engravings with images of the older buildings in Rome and Italy. It also includes projects by Bramante, Rafael and Peruzzi. Among the contemporary works in the treaty, Saint Peter of Rome stands out.

The third book, dedicated to Francis I (king from 1515 to 1574) who brought Serlio to France to work at Fontainebleau until 1547, it contains perspectives that proved novel for the study of architecture and ancient art in his time.

The significance of this book lies in the fact that the representation of architecture had not been used before as an informative medium aimed at an audience. That is, the illustrations are as central as the text.

The cover shows a ruin with pilasters and arcs with the inscription: Rome quanta fuit ipsa ruina docet ("even its ruins show us what Rome was like in antiquity") with the intention of attracting the reader's attention.

In the library we keep two copies of this book from the Manuel Ribas i Piera collection. One of the copies is bound with two more works by Sebastiano Serlio:

This copy of the library comes from FManuel Ribas Piera

 

 

SERLIO, Sebastiano. Il Primo [-fifth] book of architettura. In Venetia: by Pietro de Nicolini de Sabbio, ad instantia by Melchiorre Sessa, MDLI [1551]

Access to the digital version

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SERLIO, Sebastiano. Libro primo [-quinto] d'Architecttura di Sebastiano Serlio Bolognese: nel quale si tratta di primi principii della Geometria. Venetia: Gio. Battista et Marchio Sessa, [1560]

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SERLIO, Sebastiano. Third and fourth books by Sebastián Serlio Boloñés. Toledo: Joan de Ayala, 1563.

Access to the digital version  

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SERLIO, Sebastiano. Third and fourth book of Architecture by Sebastian Serlio Boloñes: which deals with the ways in which buildings can be decorated with examples of antiquities / traduzido de toscano en lengua castellana por Francisco de Villalpando ... Impresso ... en Toledo: en casa de Iuan de Ayala: a costa de Miguel Rodriguez ..., 1573

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SERLIO, Sebastiano. Tutte l'opere d'architettura, et prrospetiua, di Sebastiano Serlio bolognese : doue si mettono in disegno tutte le maniere di edificitij ... : con la aggiunta delle inuentioni di cinquanta porte ... : diuiso in sette libri : con vn' indice copiosissimo con molte considerationi, & vn breue discorso sopra questa materia / collected by M. Gio. Domenico Scamozzi Vincentian. Di nuovo restampate, e corrette. In Vinegia [Venice] : presso gli Heredi di Francesco de' Franceschi, 1600

Access to the digital version

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                      Go to the beginning

 

Treatises of Vignola, 1507-1573

 

AMATI, Carlo. The Orders of architecture of Barozzi da Vignola / published by Carlo Amati architect member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. Milan: in the Stamperia di Pirotta and Maspero: they meet at the author's, 1805

Access to the digital version 

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                              Go to the beginning

 

Treatises of Palladio (1508-1580)

 

PALLADIO, Andrea. The Four Books of Architecture / di Andrea Palladio: ne'quali, dopo un breue trattato de'cinque ordini & di quelli auertimenti che sono piu diversij nel fabricare si tratta delle case private delle vie, de i ponti, delle piazze, de i xisti et de tempij. In Venetia: appresso Domenico de Franceschi, 1570

Access to the digital version

First edition of Four Books who had a great influence on the architects and architecture of the later centuries immediately after his publication, and made Palladio the most imitated architect of all time.

The Palladian canon for the ancient orders proved very useful. The main reason was in the illustration: the symmetry and harmony of Palladio's designs, with its very didactic schematic conception, was especially practical for the construction of palaces, villas, bridges, civil buildings at the same time as Christian temples and churches.

Palladio began work on this treaty in 1550 when he was collaborating with Daniele Barbaro on the illustration of the Vitruvius edition of 1556. It was written for a long period of time.

Although Palladio's initial idea was to create a broader architecture treaty (in the style of the Sixteen libri Vitruvius), which did not diminish, did not diminish the central importance of this work.

It is known that the manuscript was circulated in 1555 thanks to the mention of that same year by AF Dion. Giorgio Vasari read it, already revised, in Venice about 1566.

One year after Palladio's death in 1580, his children prepared an expanded edition with a fifth book that his father would have completed before his death, but it was never published.

Later the work was reedited in many occasions as much in Italy as of other countries. According to James S. Ackerman: "The luxurious London edition of 1715 translated by Giacomo Leoni was the forerunner of Palladio's" revival "in England where, a century earlier Iñigo Jones had already been responsible for introducing and disseminating the work widely palladiana ". Leoni's edition Manuel Ribas i Piera is also available in the library within the same collection.

 

 

PALLADIO, Andrea. I Quattro libri dell'architettura, di Andrea Palladio: ne 'quali, dopo vn breue trattato de' cinque ordini, & di quelli auertimenti, che sono piu diversij nel fabricare, si tratta delle case priuate, delle vie, de i ponti, delle piazze , dei xisti, & de 'tempij. In Venetia: appresso Bartolomeo Carampello, 1581

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PALLADIO, Andrea.  The Buildings and Drawings of André Palladio: work divided into four volumes with plates that represent the plans, facades and sections / André Palladio; collected and illustrated by Octave Bertotti Scamozzi. 2nd ed. Vicenza : J. Rossi, 1786.

Access to the digital version vol. 1

Access to the digital version vol. 2

Access to the digital version vol. 3 

Access to the digital version vol. 4 

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 

 

                                                                                  Go to the beginning

other

 

BIBIENA, Ferdinando Galli. Civil architecture prepared for geometry and reduced to practical considerations. In Parma : by Paolo Monti, 1711.

Access to the digital version

Ferdinando Galli Bibiena was one of the great creative forces of baroque theatre. He was part of the Bibiena family, whose eight members together produced some of the most notable stage designs between 1680 and 1780 and designed numerous theaters across the Italian Peninsula. His work was mainly produced in the service of the Farnese family and the Habsburg court in Vienna. 

In 1708 he visited Barcelona where he was called to supervise the construction of the monuments that would celebrate the marriage of Archduke Charles. Four years later, the already emperor Charles VI, claimed it in the court of Vienna as a first theatrical architect where, with the help of his sons Giuseppe and Antonio, he was probably the most active and certainly the most influential of all scenographers of the century.

The Architettura civile is a treatise divided into five parts and illustrated with diagrams and engravings, which studies the history, theory and practice of perspective and quadrature After reviewing the contributions made by the main architectural theorists and painters interested in perspective, Ferdinando focuses in par IV of the work on the documentation of different perspective techniques developed by him, among which he includes the green by angle, which happened to replace the central perspective inherited from Renaissance painting. Most historians doubt that he was the first to use perspective per angle, but what there is no doubt about is that its historical importance comes from the widespread use of its illustrated text.

Source and more information:  

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas i Piera Collection

 

 

BRANCA, Giovanni. Manuale di Architettura di Giovanni Branca with figure in Rame edlineated incise by Filippo VasconiNew ed. Rome: Eredi Bardiellini, 1757.

Access to the digital version

Giovanni Branca (1571-1645 architect and engineer), studied mathematics and architecture in Rome, a city that granted him citizenship. He is known above all for his works Manual of architecture i The Machine, both published in 1629.

El Manual it was the practical text most used by Italian architects and students of architecture for much of the XNUMXth and all of the XNUMXth century. The work, which summarizes in one volume the established professional norms and practices, is divided into six books that deal separately with materials and construction methods, the five orders, the vaults, the doors, the windows, the stairs, chimneys, etc. as well as the rules of arithmetic and geometry. The text is followed by an appendix with thirty-two aphorisms about channeling rivers. The first edition had few illustrations.

In the different editions printed during the XNUMXth century, the manual was revised and updated and new illustrations were added.

The "revival" that Branca's work had in the XNUMXth century reflects a conscious return to the classical tradition of design. Reviews and commentaries incorporate the latest research in the field of construction techniques.

Font: The architectural treatises: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988

This copy of the library comes from the Foundation fund of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (prior to 1817)

At the bottom of the library you can also find the edition of 1772 which comes from Manuel Ribas i Piera Collection

 

 

COSTAGUTI, Giovanni Battista, junior. Architecture of the Basilica of S. Pietro in Vaticano: work by Bramante Lazzari, Michel'Angelo Bonrota, Carlo Maderni, and others. Rome: Stamperia of the Reverend Camera Apostolica, 1684

Access to the digital version of our copy

This book belongs to a series of historical and controversial illustrated studies of St. Peter's in Rome that were part of an ongoing effort by the Pope to justify the expensive construction of the building and to refute the suspicion that the ancient basilica it had been desecrated by the excavations made for the foundations of the new building.

It is the definitive edition of the collection of engravings, in addition to the best graphic illustrations of the basilica preceded by the publication in Rome in 1620 Libro de l'architettura di San Pietro nel Vaticano Finished with the design of Michelangelo Bonaroto and other architects expressed in piu tavole by Martino Ferrabosco, and dedicated to Pope Paul V by his butler, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Costaguti who had the intention of illustrating the wonders of Saint Peter and making them accessible to distant readers.

This edition of 1684 was published by Monsignor Giovanni Battista Costaguti junior, nephew of the sponsor of the previous edition and dean of the papal chamber. The main difference between the first edition of 1620 and this one is a series of plates accompanied by a Declaration of 25 pages with a brief history of the construction of the church and the meaning of the location from the origins of imperial Rome to its transformation at the beginning of the XNUMXth century.

The editor notes that this latest edition does not include the new construction done after 1620 to preserve the character of the original publication.

Source and more information at: The Mark J. Millard architectural collection. Washington: National Gallery of Art; New York: George Braziller, 1933-. Volume IV Italian and Spanish Books, p. 115-120.

This copy of the library comes from the Foundation fund of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (prior to 1817)

 

 

FONTANA, Carlo. Templum Vaticanum et ipsius Origo : editum ab equite Opus in septem Libeos distributrem. Romae: Typographia Jo. Francisci Buagni, 1694.

Access to the digital version

This is an illustrated edition with engravings of excellent technical and graphic quality. Much of the imagery was designed by Fontana and engraved by Alessandro Specchi. Contains illustrations depicting the transport of the Vatican obelisk.

It is a large "album of images", which during the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries will be the ideal support for descriptions of trips and archaeological expeditions. In it, the detailed architectural description, product of an intensive construction of the Basilica of Saint Peter (of which Fontana was deputy minister), they match the documentary effort with the aesthetic strategy of the sheets. The technical mastery of Alessandro Specchi's engravings is total. So is the compositional balance.

Each image obeys a careful staging, be it a plan or the constructive detail of a vault.

But what is really unique about this volume are the images of a whole series of technical devices: scaffolding, ladders, tensioners... designed and used by Niccola Zabaglia, illiterate, but recognized by his contemporaries as the most advanced man in his era a Statics and Mechanics and in the art of moving weight. The respect of Fontana, an architect of great culture, for the work of this "professore meccanico" who learned everything "senza libri" gives rise to a production of images that exceeds the classical architectural repertoire to stage these constructions flawless and ephemeral

Font: The Imaginary Library: old books of the FADU. Buenos Aires: University Publishing House of Buenos Aires-Eudeba: University of Buenos Aires, 1998. p. 26-27/53

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

FONTANA, Domenico. Della trasportatione dell'obelisco vaticano et delle fabriche di nostro signore Pope Sixtus V: fatte dal cavallier Domenico Fontana ...: libro primo. Rome: Domenico Basa, 1590-1604.

Access to the digital version

According to Joseph Connors, this is the best illustrated architectural book of the 42th century. In order to move the obelisk from the southern part of St. Peter's, where it had been imperturbable since antiquity, Fontana, at the age of XNUMX, relied on the engineering knowledge of Vitruvius, Alberti, Jacques Besson, Camilo Agrippa, and especially of the great theoretician of the mechanics of the time Guidobaldo del Monte. In fact, del Monte's translator, Filippo Pigafetta, published his own scheme for moving the obelisk to Discorso d'intorno della Aguglia et al muoverla region published in 1586.

Despite the title of Fontana's book, it not only talks about the transfer of the Vatican obelisk, but also of three others during the papacy of Sixtus V, the erection of the colossal bronze statues of St. Peter and St. Paul on the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius and the program of the complete building of the Pope.

This res gesture it includes the construction of the Vatican Library, the Villa Montalto and the Sistine Chapel at Santa Maria Maggiore, the Acqua Felice and the Fountain of Moses near the Baths of Diocletian and the new Lateral Palace. But what makes the imagination fly are the impressions of the great castle of wooden beams that was made to lower the obelisk and transport it to the front of the square, where it was raised not on the axis of the church, but in a line that goes from the center of the dome to the end of the Bridge of San Angelo.

The wheel of Fontana's fortune turned when Sixtus V died and the accounts of his all-powerful architects were called into question. Fontana went into exile in Naples where he built the Royal Palace and founded a dynasty that continued his work his son, Giulio Cesare. In Naples the second volume was published in 1604. It includes prints of the Scala Santa in the Lateran Palace, the Borghetto Bridge, the new wing of the Vatican Palace, and rooms designed to be built in the Colosseum to house textile workers, one of the feeble attempts to Sixtus V to revive the failed Roman economy.

Font: Avery's choice: five centuries of great architectural books: one hundred years of an architectural library, 1890-1990. New York GK Hall, 1997. p.15-16

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 GUARINI, Guarino. Civil architecture of Father D. Guarino Guarini Posthumous work dedicated to his Sacred Royal Maeta. Turin: Gianfrancesco Mairesse, 1737. 

Access to the digital version

According to Etta Arntzen: Civil Architecture was published, in 1737, by Bernardo Vittone. The text is divided into five books: I. Of architecture in general (observations on the nature, objectives and principles of architecture); II. Iconography (plots, foundations and plants); III. High spelling (sections, turns, elevations and orders) IV. Spelling thrown (methods for projecting plans on the surface); v. Geodesy (methods to transform one geometric shape into another; methods to subdivide geometric figures). Some of the 79 images that illustrate the text are signed by Guarini himself, Abbiati and Fayneau. These consist of mathematical drawings, architectural details, sections, plans and elevations of the buildings made by Guarini himself in Turin, his churches in Paris, Lisbon, Messina and Prague, and the layouts of his projected works in Vicenza, Verona and Oropa. Guarini mastered much of the existing literature on architecture and mathematics and used, critically, certain passages of Vitruvius, Renaissance theorists and Delorme, as well as some of his contemporaries, such as J. de Caramuel and CF Millet de Chales .

At the inaugural lecture of the symposium on Guarini held in 1968, Rudolf Wittkower summarized the ideas contained in Civil Architecture and the methods of its author, emphasizing above all the clarity with which the treatise is organized the good critical sense of Guarini at the time of correcting the traditional rules, its new inventions, its deep erudition, its admiration by the gothic one and his use of techniques such as stereotomy and projective geometry learned from the French. In front of one of Guarini's wonderful and extensive domes, the uninitiated art lover neither understands nor cares to understand the complicated geometry of its construction, thus fulfilling one of Guarini's principles in Civil Architecture: although it depends largely on mathematics, the end of architecture is to please and delight the viewer.

Font: The Architecture Treaties: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988

One of the copies in the library belongs to the Founding collection of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (prior to 1817) and the other in Manuel Ribas Piera Collection.

More information at: Theory of architecture: from the Renaissance to the present. 89 articles on 117 Treaties. Cologne [etc]: Taschen, cop. 2003. ISBN 3822825220, p. 128-137    

 

 

LABACCO, Antonio. Antonio Labacco's book pertaining to architecture in which some notable antiquities from Rome are featuredImpresso in Rome: in casa nostra, MDLVIII 1559

Access to the digital version

According to Martí C. Perdue, he is a disciple of Sangallo the Younger, Labacco is best known for the construction of the large wooden model of Saint Peter as designed by Sangallo in 1547. He also worked with him on the fortifications of Parma and Piacenza in the 1520s.

Product of the new Renaissance interest in antiquities and archaeology, the Book by Antonio Labacco it consists of 36 plates, including the frontispiece engraved by his son Mario. All of them show views and reconstructions of ancient Roman buildings, such as Trajan's Arch, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, a centralized plan of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini and plans of Hadrian's Port. Despite some inaccuracies, this book was very popular. No two copies are alike, and the history and scope of their prints are not entirely clear.

Font: Los Tratados de architecture: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas i Piera Collection

In the library you can also find the edition of the 1588 and another without publication date that come from Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

MILIZIA, Francesco. Principle of Civil Architecture. Bassano: a spese Rimondini di Venezia, 1785

Access to the digital version of our copy

This work was first published in a lavish three-volume edition without illustrations in 1781 and constitutes Neoclassicism's greatest contribution to architectural theory. It was widely disseminated, publishing six editions until the XNUMXth century. Its success was also largely due to the systematic organization of the subject and the clarity with which Milizia advocates an enlightened "philosophical architecture", influenced by the idea of ​​ideal beauty.

The first edition of the work was in 1781 and the second in 1785. Later, Giovanni Battista Cipriani completed the treatise by adding a book of independent plates with the title Índice della figure relative to the Principi di architettura civile containing 35 engravings and an index.

Milizia does not classify architectural orders in the category of ornament, but considers them essential elements of the work itself as did Scamozzi (1548-1616).

Milizia's style, a combination of polemical and didactic elements, shows his intention to improve the level of architecture of his time which he subjected to constant criticism. While explaining his theory based on numerous examples from the history of architecture, Milizia not only charges against the architects of the High Baroque and Late Baroque, but also criticizes Palladio and even some works old ones that do not correspond to his classical ideal of an architecture based on reason and governed by functionality.

Source and more information at: Theory of architecture: from the Renaissance to the present day. 89 articles on 117 Treaties. Köln [etc]: Taschen, cop. 2003. ISBN 3822825220, p. 186-191

One of these copies in the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817), and the other from Manuel Ribas i Piera Collection

 

WELL, Andrea. Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum Andreae Putei e Societate Jesu = Prospettiva de 'pittori e architetti d'Andrea Pozzo della Compagnia di Giesú. Part one [... second]. In Roma = Zu Rom: nella stamperia di Gio. Giacomo Komarek ... = gedruckht von Joann. Jacob Komarek ..., 1693-1700. 2 vols.

Access to the digital version

Pozzo was a self-taught architect who was trained with the help of XNUMXth-century Italian tractors. He emphasized that architecture came from painting and the technique essential to any painter: perspective.

The treaty has a practical approach and, for the most part, is original. It was very popular and had a great impact. His studies of perspective, as well as his architectural designs, had long been an inspiration.

The two volumes of the treatise begin with a dedication followed by a brief prologue "To the Reader" (Ad lectorum) and an index, and include a series of 101 and 116 engravings in each volume, with accompanying explanations in Latin and Italian.

Most of the engravings are by Vincenzo Mariotti, a student of Pozzo. Volume 1 is dedicated to Emperor Leopold I (reign from 1658 to 1705) and Volume 2 to his son Joseph I (1705-1711). After the covers in Latin and Italian, each volume contains an allegorical representation that refers to the study of architecture. A second preface, Monita ad Tyrones, ("Notice for Beginners") introduces the first volume and explains the gradual construction of the treatise which is presented as a manual.

Volume 1 begins with simple exercises focusing on the perspective representation of the square. It follows with exercises that rely on different architectural elements and structured stone groups, and then some Pozzo projects for altars and theater sets. The last sheets are dedicated to the fresco on the roof of the main ship of Sant'Ignazio (discovered in 1694, two years after the first volume was published). Its construction in perspective was the didactic and theoretical object of the first volume. Volume II focuses on complex building exercises as well as projects for other churches.

Various editions of the treaty were published in the 1700th century, and it was widely disseminated in favor of the extension of the Jesuit order (to which Andrea Pozzo belonged) around the world. The first translations into French and German were published in 1707. In 1708, a bilingual text in Latin and English was published in London, and in XNUMX in Brussels in Latin and Flemish.

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

SIRIGATI, Lorenzo. The practice of prospecting by Cavaliere Lorenzo Sirigati. Venice: Girolamo Franchesci, 1596

Access to the digital version

First edition of this book, which was dedicated to Ferdinando de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In the first XNUMX sheets the basic principles are carefully explained and, after passing through arches, vaults, capitals, doors and facades, he makes representations of the violin and the lute.

The second book (without text) shows the application of various techniques to different parts of buildings and to a wide variety of open and closed polyhedrons.

Baltrusaitis in his article Anamorphoses, 1955, pages 58-70, cites Plate 43 as a precursory example of the "accelerated" perspective.

Seconds Paul Breman: "Sirigatti's treatise was well received by both his images and his good sense. For Renaissance painters and architects, perspective was one of the most highly regarded sciences, and Sirigatti occupied a prominent place with full rights. among the foremost authors in the field. His work was re-fashioned in the XNUMXth century, being praised primarily for its simplicity and its fundamentally practical approach. "

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

                                                                                      Go to the beginning

 

French architectural treatises

 

BELIDOR, M. (Bernard Forest of). Hydraulic architecture, or the art of driving, raising and managing water for the different needs of life.. A Paris ...: chez Charles-Antoine Jombert ..., 1737-1753. 2 Flights.

Access to the digital version volume 1 

Access to the digital version volume 2

One of the copies in the library belongs to the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817) and the other at Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BELIDOR, M. (Bernard Forest of). The Science of Engineers in the Conduct of Fortification and Civil Architecture: Dedicated to the King / by Mr. Belidor.
Paris: Claude Jombert, 1729. 2 volumes

Access to the digital version volume 1

Access to the digital version volume 2

According to Robin Middleton: "Bernard Forêt de Belidor was one of the most famous and appreciated engineers of the XNUMXth century: Smeaton, Telford and Rennie, for example, learned French to read their Hydraulic Architecture. However it has not been much studied, not even in France. He was born in Catalonia in 1694 or 1698, the son of a soldier who was assassinated shortly afterwards. He was raised by another officer who taught him the rudiments of survey and military strategy. Sent to Paris, he worked for both Cassini and La Hire, and from a very young age was appointed professor of mathematics at La Frère's Artillery Squadron. His teaching there established his reputation. But the advances he made in gunpowder manufacturing and the science of ballistics seemed an affront to the Prince of Dombes who removed him from office [...]

He was director for many years of the Arsenal, a member of the Académie des Sciences, etc. But it was his books on fortifications and military subjects that launched him to fame. The science of engineering published in 1729 was his best known work: the first engineering manual ever published. The book is divided into six parts, each paginated separately, mainly concerned with fortifications and their construction: there are sections on masonry, construction of arches and earth pressure (in which the properties of the soil are treated for the first time ). Vauban tables for the design of retaining walls were included. The last book deals with estimates and quantities of materials. But the fourth and fifth books are devoted to architectural design: the fourth to the distribution of barracks, hospitals and ancillary buildings, walkways and smelters in the city; the fifth to the decorative aspect of architecture.

[…] The five orders and their related moldings are treated extensively, being the basic source of François Conde's Cours d'architecture and its ideals. as opposed to those of Claude Perrault, are equally recognized. Belidor accepted that beauty was essentially arbitrary and conventional. He was also quite aware of the most recent treatises, such as the Perspective treatise de Courtonne of 1725, who for him remark the great contribution of the French to the architecture in the question of the detailed planning of the hotels. […] But Belidor was unwilling to accept the whims of Italian taste that were then fostered in French architecture, in particular interior design. He harshly criticized the church of the Theatines designed by Guarino Guarini, which, according to him, was a thousand times stranger even than the Gothic one. ” ( Avery';s choice : five centuries of great architectural books : one hundred years of an architectural library, 1890-1990. New York: GK Hall, 1997. pp.70-71, translated from English)

One of the copies in the library belongs to the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817) and the other at Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

BLONDEL, Francois. Course of architecture taught in the Royal Academy of Architecture, first [.. fifth] part: or are explained the terms, origin & principles of architecture & the practices of the five orders according to the doctrine of Vitruvius & its principal sectarians, & following that of the three most skilful architects who have written among the moderns, who are Vignole, Palladio & Scamozzi / dedicated to the King by M. François Blondel, of the Royal Academy of Sciences. In Paris: from the Lambert Roulland printing house, in the house of Antoine Vitré, rue du Foin, for sale at Pierre Auboin & Francis Clouzier, near the Hotel de Monseigneur le Premier President, court of the Palais, in bloom de lis, et chez les mesmes sur le quay des Grands Augustins, à la fleur de lis d'or, M.DC.LXXXXVI (1696) A Paris: chez l'auteur aux Faux-Bourg Saint Germain rür Jacob, au coin de celle de Saint Benoît et Nicholas Langlois rüe S. Jacquess à la victoire, MDCLXXXXVI A Paris: de l'imprimerie de François le Cointe rüe des Sept-Voyes, prés le College de Reims.

The Architecture Course, who contributed greatly to the systematic study of orders, consisted of the author's lectures at the Académie, where he was professor and director from 1671 until his death in 1686. It is the first organized course of architecture in France and initiated a new genre of architectural treatise. A large part is devoted to the erudite commentary and comparison of the orders of Vitruvius, Alberti, Vignola, Palladio, and Scarmozzi. The sections are accompanied by tables and complicated comparative diagrams of proportions.

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

BLONDEL, Jacques-François. The distribution of pleasure houses and the decoration of buildings in general. Paris: Charles Antoine Jombert, 1737. 2 Vols.

Access to the digital version of our copies

In the words of Steven Frear: "This is Blondel's first published work, also known as the Traité d'Architecture dns le goût moderne. It was aimed at the architect, the student and the art lover. of construction. " It was written during the "boom" of domestic architecture that took place in France in the XNUMXth century. Blondel showed the reader through various models of country houses made by himself.

In fact, although there had previously been treaties dealing with this type of building in a more or less theoretical way, Blondel's was the first to define in a more descriptive way the planning criteria that a building should have. period cottage (or hôtel).

These houses, only for the richest, illustrate the principle of the convenience, determined by reason and scial custom.

The work was published in two volumes, and most of his engravings were designs by the author himself. The first volume includes the plans of the lots and the plants and elevations of the houses and gardens. The second volume contains details of the gardens and a section dedicated to the decoration of the interiors ”. (The Architecture Treaties: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988, p. 287-288, translated from Spanish).

One of the copies in the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817) and the other of the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

More information at:
PLACEK, Adolf K., ed. Avery's choice: five centuries of great architectural books: one hundred years of an architectural library, 1890 1990. New York: GK Hall, 1997. p.71-73.

Teoria de la arquitectura: del Renacimiento a la actualidad. 89 articles on 117 Treaties. Cologne [etc]: Taschen, cop. 2003. ISBN 3822825220

 

BLONDEL, Jacques-François. Civil Architecture Course: Architecture course, or Treatise on the Decoration, Distribution and Construction of Buildings / by JF Blondel (From vol. VII); and continued by Mr. Patte. Paris: Desaint, 1771-7. 6 Flights.

Access to digital version:
Flight. 1: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65578971
Flight. 2: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6558006r
Flight. 3: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6557942d
Flight. 4: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6557566f
Flight. 5: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6558090p
Flight. 6: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6557915h

Robin Middleton asserts that · ”Blondel, equal to or even to a greater extent than his seventeenth-century namesake (also author of a treatise), should be regarded as a theorist rather than an architect, although his buildings sober in the Place d'Armes of Metz still today attest to his great talents as an architect. He was the great master of eighteenth-century architecture, and his disciples include not only a large number of the most distinguished French architects, but also architects from Germany, Russia, and England. Sir William Chambers is the chief representative. All of Blondel's doctrine is explained in his Carchitecture bear.

He began his professional career of a certain rebellion; in 1742 he tried to open an École des Arts to face the Académie school, a purpose that came true the following year, but in 1750 he was already sent by students from the École des Ponts et Chaussées, and in 1762 he himself was appointed professor at the Académie Royal d'Architecture. His teachings were truly academic in the best sense of the term, logical and based on order, as was his course divided into three parts: the first devoted to decoration, the second to planning ("Distribution"). ) and the third in construction. But he was not a reactionary or an indoctrinator.

His taste changed over the years, and he let his beliefs be permeable to the influences of his younger contemporaries; he was, above all, a person of great tolerance. Although he admired mainly the works of Francois Masart and also those of Claude Perrault, he also recognized the merit of Borromini (though not that of his followers) and even understood the Gothic architecture he considered the expression adequate of French Catholicism. He taught his students to draw and build not only noble buildings, but also useful structures. With all his tolerance, he was not prepared to understand any kind of exoticism or novelty. He disapproved of the taste for large-scale forms that began to develop in the late eighteenth century, as well as the overly direct imitation of antiquity. He always advocated moderation in all aspects of art.

Similarly, he did not share JG Soufflot’s obsessive interest in construction issues and, in fact, the last three volumes of his Courses of Architecture, which address these problems, were adapted and completed – we might say practically written – by his disciple Pierre Patte (1723-1814), whose enthusiasm and knowledge were largely superior to Blondel's. Together they produced an architectural manual that would be used throughout France and much of Europe until the early XNUMXth century, when the works of JNL Durand and JB Rondelet came to supersede it.” (The Architecture Treaties: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988, p. 154-155, translated from Spanish).

The library copy comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

BRISEUX, Charles-Étienne. Modern architecture, or the art of good building: for all kinds of people both for private houses and for palaces... In Paris: chez Claude Jombert..., 1728

Access to the digital version

Briseux, in his treatises, reflects the new architectural orientation experienced in the 1728th century. This work is published anonymously in XNUMX and its authorship has recently been attributed following the updating of a treatise by Pierre Le Muet of a similar name: Manière de bastir for all kinds of people (also described in this section of Selection of works). 

Briseux proposes in his works numerous variations of the plan and elevations of houses and urban palaces. It tries to reconcile in a harmonious way the comfort, decoration and arrangement of a whole range of buildings that include from the narrow house, with several floors, to the luxurious palace.

Font: Theory of architecture: from the Renaissance to the present day. 89 articles on 117 Treaties. Köln [etc]: Taschen, cop. 2003. ISBN 3822825220, p. 278

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas i Piera fund.

 

 

CHAMBERS, William, Sir. Traité des edifices, furniture, habits, machines et utensiles des Chinois. Paris: chez le Sieur Le Rouge, Ingénieur-Géographe du Roi..., 1776

Access to the digital version

The translation of the text of Chambers design of Chinese buildings with adaptations and engravings of the plates of the English edition was published by Georges Louis Le Rouge. It is probably an earlier edition of Cahier V de Anglo-Chinese Gardens de Le Rouge also published in 1776. The reduced format of the French version in contrast to the folio size of the English edition necessitated dividing some of the plates into two sections.

There is also a slight difference in the organization and pagination compared to those of Cahier V. As a result of these adaptations, part of the illustrative integrity of the work is lost. But the Treaty it certainly serves its purpose: to satisfy the growing French interest in the picturesque garden with material from Chambers's publication, which was akin to the French interpretation of garden design.

Chambers' work was produced during a period in which he focused on architectural ornament in gardens and intended to correct the excesses in the use of this ornament by explaining the classical tradition.

Font: The Mark J. Millard architectural collection. Washington: National Gallery of Art; New York: George Braziller, 1993-. Volume | French Books, p. 112-113

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas i Piera Collection

 

 

FRÉART, Roland. Parallèle de l'architecture antique et de la moderne: containing the profiles of the most beautiful buildings in Rome compared with the ten main authors who wrote in five orders; Scavoir, Palladio et Scamozzi, Serlio et Vignole, D. Barbaro et Cataneo, LB Alberti et Viola, Bullant et de Lorme. 2nd ed. (from the Book of Monsieur de Chambray). Paris: François Jollain, 1689.

Access to the digital version of our copy

Robert Neuman states that "Fréart de Cambray was born in Le Mans into one of those noble families that belonged to the new variety of connoisseurs appeared in the seventeenth century and participated considerably in the formation of artistic taste. [...] In his first time in Italy, in 1630-35, Roland established contacts with French classical painters based in Rome and studied classical architecture. [...]

El Parallel, which was aimed at an audience of educated architects and architecture enthusiasts, comprised a series of visual comparisons accompanied by explanatory texts concerning the orders and their use by architects of classical antiquity and the Renaissance. Condemning the architects of his time for the liberties they took in interpreting orders, and recommending ancient architecture (in reality, the laws of nature itself) as the sole source of architectural principles, Fréart he started the architectural version of the famous "Querella dels anticos i les modernes". For Fréart, only the Greeks had produced a perfect architecture that could serve as a model for the present. He found the three Greek orders so beautiful, that even the two Roman ones left him cold.

Later his inflexible teachings, which followed the theoretical objectives of the Académie that had just been founded, would be rebutted by Perrault. But his general theory of the rational nature of beauty was of great importance at the time and would reappear a century later and in the form of a differentEssay on architecture de Laugier (1753) ”(The Architecture Treaties: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988, p.179, translated from Spanish).

The library copy comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

FREZIER, Amedée-FrançoisThe theory and practice of stone and wood cutting: for the construction of vaults and other parts of civil and military buildings, or stereotomy treatise, for use in architecture. Strasbourg: jD Doubfeker le Fils; Paris: SH Guerin l'Amé, 1737-1739

Access to the digital version (volume I) 

Access to the digital version (volume 2)

Access to the digital version (volume 3)

Jean-Marie de Pérouse de Montclos comments: this monumental treatise by Frézier represents the culmination of all the knowledge of stereotomy. Three editions were made and this shows that it was quite well received by the public. The military engineer Frézier is also the author of Traité des feux artifices (1747) and several dissertations on architecture published in Mercury from France The first volume of theory, which constitutes a third of the complete work, is a mathematics course in which Frézier shows the follower the ideas of Desargues, but of the theoretical Desargues of conic sections rather than of the universal manner. The other two volumes present a series of studies on cases of applied stereotomy, exceptional for their length and their methodical organization very close to the spirit ofEncyclopedia.

Font: The architectural treatises: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas i Piera Collection

In the library you can also find the edition of the 1754 1769 which comes from Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

LAUGIER, Marc-Antoine. Essai sur l'architecture. In Paris: chez Duchesne, rue S. Jacques, au Temple du Goût, M.DCC.LIII [1753]

LAUGIER, Marc-Antoine. Essai sur l'architecture. New edition, revised, corrected, & augmented with a dictionary of terms and plates which facilitate its explanation. A Paris: Chez Duchesne ..., 1755

Access to the digital version (1753 edition)

Access to the digital version (1755 edition)

Despite its modest presentation (small eighth books without illustrations), Laugier's books had an immediate impact.

Seconds Richard A. Etlin"The Essay he was at the forefront of the three main issues of the time: architectural composition, urbanism, and landscape architecture. Following the example of New treatise on the whole architecture of Cordemoy (2nd ed. 1714), Laugier denounces the "abuses" of Baroque architecture (split pediments, attached columns, pilasters) and, having done so, goes on to offer a building model for the future in his memorable description of the cottage primitive At the same time that Jean-Jacques Rousseau explored the myth of the good savage in order to determine the foundations of human nature and society, Laugier returned to the origins of architecture, based on structural logic and formal of the Greek temple, to establish the principles of architectural design. And by doing this, Laugier also diminished the importance given in architectural theory to the debates around the proportions of the orders, to give it to questions of composition through the use of pure geometric forms".

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

 

LE MUET, Pierre. Maniere de bastir pour toutes sortes de personae. Paris: Melchior Tavernier, 1623

Access to the digital version

The aim of this book was to make available to bourgeois customers and amateurs essential information on everything related to urban construction. The work follows the basic format: a series of floors and elevations, accompanied by comments, of a wide variety of types of houses.

But this work stands out, with respect to the predecessors of Le Muet (as Serlio in his book VI All the degrees of men, of the Orme with Pour the grands and the little ones of 1567 or Jacques Androuet de Cerceau a Soît of small, moyen ou great state of 1559) which includes more variety of models and is also aimed at potential clients with lower budgets that did not allow them to hire architects. Proof of this is that many of the slabs consist of a narrow façade without architectural ornament and a single room on each floor.

This treaty was an essential source of information on home architecture under the reign of the first two Bourbons in France: Henry IV (who reigned from 1589 to 1610) and Louis XIII (who reigned from 1610 to 1643). guide for many architects up to about 1680.

Le Muet added engravings to the Parisian hotels he had designed in the second edition of 1647, which was followed by the editions of 1663 (with some supplemental sheets with cover models) and 1681.

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

                                                                                     Go to the beginning

 

Spanish architectural treatises

 

ARFE Y VILLAFAÑE, Juan de. Varia commensuración for sculpture and architecture. 5th imp. Madrid: Printing house of Miquel Escribano, 1763

Access to the digital version 

According to John B. Bury, Juan de Arfe was the son and grandson of renowned silversmiths. He himself is the author, among other pieces of great magnificence, of the most representative and impressive example of Renaissance silverware: the custody of the Cathedral of Seville (1580-87). However, he did not want to belong to the guild of silversmiths in Burgos because, according to his own words, his true professions were those of gold and silver sculptor and architect", and moreover he was a "Hidalgo e persona principal.. . and of the most eminent men of Spain in their art".

A Of various commensuration, the author's portrait and monogram under his coat of arms attest to his strong sense of dignity and personal status. The aim of the book, according to what he himself points out in a note to the readers, is limited to "what can teach artifice in sculpture and architecture". In other words, it is essentially a didactic manual, aimed specifically at those who make objects (Book I: sundials), sculptors (Books I and III: human and animal figures) and architects and platemakers (Book IV: the orders, the sacred vessels).

Title I of Book IV provides a brief and masterful summary of the five orders, based on Serlio, but with a strong Plateresque bent and an interest in all that "permissible" ornamentation appropriate to the architecture of silversmiths and also, as he explained Palladio to his Four Books (IV, 15), for small buildings.

Font: Los Tratados de architecture: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas i Piera Collection

In the library you can also find the edition of 1795 which comes from Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

BRIGUZ and BRU, Athanasio Genaro, 1713? School of civil architecture: which contains the orders of architecture, the distribution of the plans of temples and houses, and the knowledge of the materials / its author Athanasio Genaro Brizguz y Bru, architect. Valencia: Joseph Thomas Lucas, 1738

Access to the digital version

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RIEGER, Christian. Elements of all civil architecture: with the most unique services of modern / printed in Latin by Fr. Christiano Rieger which, augmented by it, is translated into Spanish by Fr. Miguel Benavente. Madrid: por Joachin Ibarra ..., 1763

Access to the digital version

According to Carlos Sambricio. “The publication in 1763 of Rieger's Elements of Civil Architecture marks an important guideline in Spanish architectural thought because, translated by Miguel Benavente, it opens the door to problems posed in France and Italy on the meaning of classicism. Published in Spain seven months after the original edition in Vienna, Father Benavente does not limit himself to translating the original text, but introduces new features. Benavente manages to modify the original plates, adjusting them to Laugier's ideas about the cabin and the origin of the architecture. ” (SAMBRICIO, Carlos. The texts and the treatises of architecture of the illustrated Spain. To: Goya, the Enlightenment and architecture: the birth of modern art: Exhibition: Official College of Architects of Aragon. Delegation of Zaragoza: 26 February 1996-30 March 1996. Zaragoza: Official College of Architects of Aragon, 1996, p. 43-47. Online query, translated from Spanish)

Dora Wiebenson comments that only the Spanish edition contains information about stereotomy. According to her, this treatise was probably the most important reference work on civil architecture in Central Europe during the second half of the XNUMXth century.

The Treaties of Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid Hermann Blume, 1988, p. 141-142)

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas i Piera Collection

 

 

TORIJA, Juan de. Brief treatise on all kinds of vaults, both regular and regular, the execution of works and measuring them with singularity and modern fashion, observing the canterile precepts of the masters of architecture with singularity and modern fashion, observing the canterile precepts of the masters of architecture. Madrid: Pablo de Val, 1661

Access to the digital version

According to Fernando Marías, Torija from Madrid, although on the cover he appears as a "master architect" he was a competent master builder interested in improving the professional conditions of the master builders of the moment by claiming his abilities over the "painter architects" which he considered profane in the practice of architecture. This Torija treatise offered a mechanical character that departed from other treatises of the time such as that of Lorenzo de San Nicolás and Alonso de Vandelvira which were more focused on the art of stonemasons or the stereotomy of stone. Torija's manual focused exclusively on the art of the mason's bouquet in order to provide basic arithmetic rules for easily calculating the surface size in square feet of the main types of vaults that were used.
This calculation of the surface was essential both to calculate economic budgets of the work and to make appraisals of works already completed. The main interest of Torija's manual focuses on "its representative nature of the scholastic concerns of contemporary master builders." ( The Architecture Treaties: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988, p. 246-248)

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

                                                                                    Go to the beginning

 

Treatises on military architecture

 

CATANEO, Girolamo. Dell'Arte militare: libri cinque, ne'quali si tratta il modo di fortificare, offendere, et diffendere una fortezza: et l'Ordine come sidebbano fare gli Alloggiamenti Campali; & formare le battaglie, con l'essamine de bombardieri, & di far fuochi arteficiati. Book one / di Girolano Cataneo novarese. In Brescia: Next to Thomaso. Bozzola, MDLXXXIIII [1584].

Access to the digital version

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LUCUCE, Pedro de. Dissertation on military measures, which contains the reason for preferring the use of Nationals to those of Foreigners . In Barcelona: by Francisco Suriá and Burgada ..., 1773

Access to the digital version

This copy of the library comes from Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (before 1803)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LUCUCE, Pedro de. Principles of fortification: containing the definitions of the main terms of the square and campaign works, with an idea of ​​the conduct regularly observed in the attack and defense of the fortresses: arranged for the instruction of military youth. In Barcelona: by Thomas Piferrer ..., 1772

This copy of the library comes from Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (before 1803)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VILLE, Antoine de. The Fortifications of the Knight Antoine de Ville: contain the way to fortify all kinds of places with the attack, and the means to take the Places. Paris: Compagnie des Libraires de Palais, 1666.

Access to the digital version

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                       Go to the beginning

 

Treatises on mathematics

 

BAÍLS, Benito. Elements of mathematics. Madrid: por D. Joachin Ibarra ..., 1779-1804. 11 vol.

Access to the digital version

According to Carlos Sambricio: "Benito Baïls arrived in Spain from France around 1761. He has a broad education in both mathematics and geometry as well as in philosophy and economics which he disseminates through different periodicals of Madrid Illustrat. A few years later he was named Director of Mathematics of the Academia de San Fernando and participated in different controversies and debates that existed in the Academy. He took the side of those who wanted a change in Baroque knowledge, giving it a different approach close to those of the French academies or the architects resident in Rome.

In this sense, Baïls accepts the idea of ​​replacing both the old language of grotesques and the rocks with the new classicist ideal, and at the same time assumes the adoption of the types of buildings developed by the architects of the mentioned countries. Eclectic in his training, Baïls is a writer who publishes both a treatise on harmony and a study on the advisability of burying the dead outside the cities, he decides to edit his Elements of Mathematics as a way of making known an important number of issues that had not been dealt with until then in Spain, thus turning its eleven volumes into a fundamental repertoire of problems and issues raised in the Europe of its time.

To this end, Baïls voluntarily assumes a role as a diffuser, as a divulgator, some references and offering architectural images belonging to architectural treatises widely disseminated outside our borders. His intention is to disseminate formal models, to provide typological solutions for a small number of buildings, since he considers that only five themes (church, barn or dressing room, hospital, prison and theater) are fundamental within civil architecture. However, away from the architectural and academic theory only of texts already surpassed at the time, Bails will not understand that many of the examples he offers are contradictory, reflecting different mentalities and cultures, and in this sense he does not hesitate to present images of the 'Església de Val de Gràcia in parallel with the Theater of Naples, in the same way that there is no difference between the Jesuit architecture of Nîmes and the Hotel-Dieu de Poyet project.

But if Baïls made a mistake in the images and examples he offers, so do his quotes or references to architectural theorists: he indiscriminately mixed rigorist texts (Laugier or Italian texts) with references to Blondel's classicist baroque, with the theoretical assumptions of Milizia or with the functionalist treatises". (The Architecture Treaties: from Alberti to Ledoux. Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1988, p. 160-162, translated from Spanish).

This copy of the library comes from the Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (before 1803)

 

 

BAÍLS, Benito. Principles of mathematics of the Royal Academy of San Fernando / by Don Benito Bails. 2nd ed. Added. Madrid: Imp. of the Vda. de Ibarra, 1788, 1789, 1790. 3 Vols.

 

Access to the digital version. Volume 1

Access to the digital version. Volume 2

Access to the digital version. Volume 3

This copy of the library comes from the Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (before 1803)

 

 

 

 

 

TOSCA AND MASCÓ Tomàs Vicent. Mathematical compendium. 3ª impr. Valencia: Joseph Garcia, 1757. 9 v.

Access to the digital version

This copy of the library comes from the Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture originating from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (prior to 1803)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                   Go to the beginning

 

other

 

Decker, Paul. Fürstlicher Baumeister / oder: Architectura civilis: wie grosser Fürsten und Herren Palläste / mit ihren Höfen / Lust-Häusern / Gärten / Grotten / Orangerien / und ande ren darzu gehörigen Gebäuden füglich anzulegen / und nach heutiger Art auszuzieren; zusamt den Grund-Rissen und Durchschnitten / auch vornehmsten Ge-mächern und Säälen eines ordentlichen fürstlichen Pallastes; Erster Theil / Inventirt und gezeichnet Durch / Paulus Decker / Hoch-Fürstl. Pfalz-Sulzbach. Architect  Verlegt von Jeremias Wolff / Kunsthändlern in Augspurg. Cum Gratia & Privilegio Sac. Cæs. Majesty. Augspurg: Gedruckt bey Peter Detleffsen Anno MDCCXI [1711] -1716.

Access to the digital version of our copy

This is the first edition of Paul Decker's work, which translates as "Architect of Princes" referring to Decker's position as master and director of works in different palaces of the German courts of his time. His intention with this work was to represent models for all types of representative buildings and projects for stately homes: palaces, gardens, orangeries, grottos, torahs, single rooms ... and he even proposed the ceiling decorations for in the main rooms. Also galleries with an exhibition of works of art following, in part, the models of French theorists such as Perrault, Blondel ... Only some really built works are represented. The work, although not containing any expressly formulated theory, had a great influence on the German Baroque and many architects and decorators of the eighteenth century were inspired by it. Profusely illustrated with large engravings and little text, it was intended to be a kind of catalog for princes and nobles, a fairly modern idea. Two of the four planned volumes were published, but Decker's untimely death left the project unfinished. The third volume, which was never published, was intended to deal with churches and chapels and the fourth civil buildings such as town halls, hospitals, schools, stock exchanges and arsenals.

This copy of the library comes from the Founding of the library of the Barcelona School of Architecture (before 1817)

More information at:

PLACEK, Adolf K., ed. Avery's choice : five centuries of great architectural books : one hundred years of an architectural library, 1890-1990. New York: GK Hall, 1997. p.71-73.

Theory of architecture: from the Renaissance to the present. 89 articles on 117 Treaties.
Cologne [etc]: Taschen, cop. 2003. ISBN 3822825220

 

Kircher, Athanasius. Athanasii Kircheri Phonurgia nova, sive, Conjugium mechanico-physicum artis & natvræ paranympha phonosophia concinnatum: quâ universa sonorum natura, proprietas, vires effectuúm [que] prodigiosorum causæ, novâ & multiplici experimentorum exhibitione enucleantur: instrumentorum acustic que instrumentorum acustic adaptandarum, tum ad sonos ad remotissima spatia propagandos, tum in abditis domorum recessibus per occultioris ingenii machinamenta clam palámue sermocinandi modus & ratio traditur, tum denique in bellorum tumultibus singlaris hujusmodi organorum usus, &
praxis per nouam phonologiam descriptur
 Campidonae: by Rudolphum Dreherr, 1673

Access to the digital version

The edition of New Phonurgia (1673) by Athanasius Kircher (Geisa, Germany 1602-Rome, Italy 1680) demonstrates the degree of Jesuit fantastic commitment and scholarship to liberal scholars and scientists who defined the boundaries of knowledge in mid-XNUMXth-century Europe. Considered in his time as one homo universalis, his studies in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, history, architecture, music, mineralogy, etc. are known. among many others.

The title of the work contains the neologism "Phonurgia", composed of the Greek words φovή (sound) and ỏpγή (work, energy). Written in Latin, its subtitle translates as "new mode of sound production", recognizing towards the end of the book "phonurgia as facultas mirabilium by sonos operatrix", Which means" the ability to cause the wonderful by means of sounds. " For Kircher, sound was not simply a physical phenomenon, but something that was deeply connected to human nature.

Kircher's works express the baroque vision of the "wonderful world", from machinist inventions that manifest a happy synthesis between science and magic: to surprise, to convince people of improbable things and, finally, to explain the arcane that lies between hermeticism and the exact sciences. His artefacts, gathered in a museum that bears the name of their author, could hardly be included in a genealogy of experimental science, but nevertheless enlightened future generations of artists and architects, from the spirit of illustration until the surrealism of the 20th century.

Source: Tronchin, Lamberto. Athanasius Kircher's New Phonurgia: The marvelous world of sound during the 17th Century, Acoustics Today, January 2009.

This copy of the library comes from the Manuel Ribas Piera Collection

 

                                                                                     Go to the beginning

 

 

Handwritten notes from the Barcelona School of Architecture and the School of Master Builders and Surveyors (1860-1928)

 

Application of algebra to lower geometry. [Barcelona]: sn, between 1780-1850

Access to the digital version

Applied algebra course. Manuscript with parchment binding.

This library copy probably came from the Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (before 1803)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Application of algebra to higher geometry. [Barcelona]: sn, between 1780 and 1850

Access to the digital version

Applied algebra course. Manuscript with parchment binding.

This library copy probably came from the Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (before 1803)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Domènech Mansana, Josep. Geometry and trigonometry problems: course from 1897 to 1898. Sl: sn, 1897-1898

Access to the digital version

Solved student problems Josep Domènech Mansana.

This specimen belongs to Fonds of the Library of the Gaudí Chair - ETSAB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planella and Roura, Macari. Construction atlas. [Barcelona]: sn, 1860-1861

Access to the digital version

Handwritten notes of the subject Construction of the Special School of Master Builders (1859-1872).

They were taken in the teacher's and professor's class John Torres.

This specimen belongs to Fonds of the Library of the Gaudí Chair - ETSAB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planella and Roura, Macari. Descriptive geometry and its applications. [Barcelona]: sn, 1859-1860

Access to the digital version

Handwritten notes taken in the teacher's class Josep Casademunt from the Special School of Construction Masters (18529-1872).

Includes 94 line drawings.

This specimen belongs to Fonds of the Library of the Gaudí Chair - ETSAB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planella and Roura, Macari. Construction lessons: explained by professor Juan Torras, architect for the Rl Academia de S. Fernando. [Barcelona]: sn, 1860

Access to the digital version

Handwritten notes of the subject Construction of the Special School of Master Builders (1859-1872). They were taken in the class of the teacher of the teacher and professor John Torres.

This specimen belongs to Fonds of the Library of the Gaudí Chair - ETSAB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planella and Roura, Macari. Topography reduced to the surveying of plans, constructions of profiles and drawing of level curves: course from 1859 to 1860. [Barcelona]: sn, 1850-1860

Access to the digital version

Handwritten notes of theSpecial School for Master Builders (1852-1879). On the additional cover: Escuela de Bellas-artes de Barcelona. Personal notebook of the student of the professional career of master builders, fitters and surveyors Macario Planella y Roura.

This specimen belongs to Fonds of the Library of the Gaudí Chair - ETSAB.

 

 

 

 

 

Treatise III of practical geometry. [Barcelona]: sn, 1754

Access to the digital version

Manuscript with parchment binding that is part of the Mathematics course de Pedro de Lucuce given toMathematics Academy of Barcelona during the XNUMXth century. Notes taken by Joan Soler and Faneca from the conference of Joan Escofet

This library copy probably came from the Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (before 1803)

 

 

 

 

 

Treatise 6 of statics. [Barcelona]: sn, between 1750 and 1794.

Access to the digital version

Manuscript with parchment binding that is part of the Mathematics course by Pedro de Lucuce given toMathematics Academy of Barcelona during the XNUMXth century. Approximate dates deduced from the biography of its former owner written in pencil: Joan Soler and Faneca, 1731-1794.

This library copy probably came from the Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (before 1803)

 

 

 

 

 

 

7th treatise on statics. [Barcelona]: sn, 1781?

Access to the digital version

Manuscript with parchment binding that is part of the Mathematics course de Pedro de Lucuce taught at the Academy of Mathematics in Barcelona during the XNUMXth century.

This library copy probably came from the Founding fund of the library of the School of Architecture from the Academy of Mathematics of Barcelona (before 1803)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go to the beginning

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

 

 

    

 


Last update: 08 / 11 / 2023